Anakin led Ahsoka through the Jedi Temple towards the smoking wreckage of Hanger bay 5. It was just about stable enough for people to walk through now bit even the parts of the Temple leading to here looked like a mess. Whoever did this clearly wanted to cause some destruction. "Who would do this Master? Nobody could get past our security so that means it was either one of the workers... Or a Jedi." Ahsoka couldn't bear to think of what that would mean of a Jedi had actually attacked them. Her faith in who the Jedi were would be shocked to the core of those they were meant to trust and believe in didn't respect their world.
Anakin hated seeing how much that propest was hurting her but until there was clear evidence against it not being a Jedi, he had to help her come to terms with the possibility. "Not every Jedi follows the path of good Ahsoka. Think about Count Dooku or *Pong Krell. They let us down and walked away from the light. What we can do is try and learn from their mistakes and make sure that we are the best Jedi we can possibly be. Even if a Jedi is behind the attack, you will always have us to rely on. We don't leave our own behind unless they choose to stay behind." He patted her on the shoulder as they walked around the exploded hanger some more.
*I really, truly hate Pong Krell for how he treated my precious clones! Sorry for the interruption.
A sudden noise caught the two Jedi's attention as a small droid appeared out of an adjoining room. "Hello, I am Russo-ISC, crime investigator droid. I'm here to help you in your investigation." He spun in a circle in front of them which caused Ahsoka to laugh and smile.
"Nice to meet you, Russo-ISC. I'm Ahsoka Tano, this is my Master, Anakin Skywalker. What can you tell us already about what happened here?" She bent down slightly to pat him on the head while he led them towards the centre of the room.
He pointed to where a lot of debris lay. "We believe this is where the bomb went off-"
"A bomb?!" Ahsoka asked, suddenly deflated again. Anakin sighed, she had been doing so well but a bomb did seem like the most explainable method.
Russo-ISC nodded. "Yes, it exploded around here and took out the rest of the hanger. It's a miracle no one has been confirmed dead as of yet." He led them around the room so that their backs were to the exploded entrance. He then pointed to many pieces of broken electronics. "We believe that this was a device that detected the bomb. However it was so close to it that the device is now far too destroyed to identify what it searched for. That means we have no idea what material the bomb was made of. An inconvenience to be sure but one that we should overcome with a proper investigation." Russo-ISC moved onwards from the wreckage and towards the door that he had came through previously. "Through here is the medical wing, the survivors of the explosion. I must warn you, with the rumours going around that a Jedi might be involved, there may be some ill will directed at you." Ahsoka and Anakin glanced at each other, nervous, but he gave her an encouraging smile as they followed Russo-ISC through to the medical wing.
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Ahsoka followed her Master and the droid through to the medical wing and was suddenly filled with a cold rage. Anger at whoever dared to hurt her beloved Temple and caused injury to all these innocent hard workers. The coldness Ahsoka could only begin to guess. "Ahsoka, you can go and talk to some of the workers. See if you can learn anything else about what happened that day. I'm going to look at the footage once more and see if ISC missed anything. Remember Snips, never trust a droid that isn't an R2 unit or C-3PO when looking for information." Ahsoka laughed at his joke quietly however she became serious once more. Anakin noticed her shift in attitude and pulled her into him. "Ahsoka, everything will be okay. Whoever did this will get caught and the Jedi will survive." He felt her tense at his words and knew that wasn't what was bothering her. "It's not the Jedi, is it?" Ahsoka shook her head against his chest. "The people won't abandon the Jedi Ahsoka, the Jedi won't abandon the people either. We will get through this." Ahsoka looked up at him as he gave her an encouraging smile before untangling themselves and going off to their assigned tasks.
Ahsoka sighed and walked over to the nearest patient lying with a bandaged arm and bruised face. "Hello, my name is Padawan Tano. Would you care to tell me what you saw on that day? We're trying to get to the bottom of this incident." The man was perhaps a couple of years older than Anakin yet the injuries made him look older.
He winced as he turned to look at her despite her friendly smile. "It started just like any other day, I was working in the hanger when an old shuttle was brought in. I was working on rebuilding the wing but my boss called me over to check the schematics. One of the workers, Jackar Bowmani, he's a nano weaponry expert. Anyway, he went over to check the shuttle for something and then everything exploded! I woke up a few hours later." He explained to Ahsoka as she finished taking notes.
She frowned. "Have you seen Jakar since the incident?" Ahsoka knew that he would be a very good lead to get to the bottom of this case.
He winced further as he thought but eventually shook his head. "That was the last time I saw him. Is it true that a Jedi may be responsible?" He gently took a hold of Ahsoka's arm and looked into her eyes, desperate for an answer.
Ahsoka knew that he and everyone else hurt deserved a proper answer but she couldn't deal with that reality at the moment. Smiling slightly, Ahsoka removed her arm. "We're not sure of anything yet." She nodded to him as she left the patients and walked over to her Master. "Skyguy? I think we have a lead, someone called Jackar Bowmani." Anakin looked over her shoulder to read her notes.
"This is good Snips, ISC? Can you get some more information about him? Ahsoka, you and I are going to ask the people if they know anything." Anakin led Ahsoka away while ISC worked through the computers.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm very pleased it however I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday as my phone went funny and I had no means to complete the chapter. Everything is fine now as you can tell and I hope I've done the first part of this arc justice. I will update again soon, most likely tomorrow. Bye, bye.